Ghost of Winter
by Skywolf24
Summary: He doesn't remember who he is, but in the battle of emotions between following orders and sparing a friend's life, the Winter Solider discovers his stolen humanity.


**Ghost of Winter**

**All characters belong to Marvel **

**I do not own any of these characters**

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**A very good friend mine loves this character. I haven't seen the movie just trailers and pictures. I'm sure if they're in character, but I felt the need to write this little one shot on Fan Fic. Thank you and enjoy.  
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**{ Ghost of Winter }**

When he gazed into the ice at his observation, the heroic soldier, he once was that held the hopes and aspirations of a son from the Bronx faded into the phantoms of a lethal delusion programmed into his brain. The Winter Solider refused to blink, instead he gazed deeper into the steel-blue eyes hidden beneath smudges of black war paint, harden by confusion and malice that have twisted the depth of his psyche.

With one punch of his metallic fist, he shattered his existence into shards, watching them cut down to his boots.

He clenched his clench hard, tasting the aggression consuming in his veins. Molten steel. He turned around and followed his orders, emerging into the sunlight, inhaling the sea water as his hawk like gaze searches for his marked target.

Instead of solider, he became a hunter. His mind controlled by thoughts of revenge and hatred.

His uniform bares no symbol of his heroics back on the German fields. His muscled body covered with bullet proof and leather armor. The steel of his arm gleamed in the afternoon light, as he watched the smoke rise above him. He kept his eyes pointed down and marched on the pavement as he would in the front lines.

_Who am I now? _He thought, as his blue eyes darkened and muscles burn. Everything he had known himself to be, vanished in the winter-in the snow.

He pulled on his half mask, covering his soft mouth, the one that kiss many lips of the women he danced in uniform but now those lips are frozen.

His long dark hair blows in the wind, he kept his eyes focused on the ground, ears intoned with gunfire.

_Echoes war._

He automatically fired his weapon, tires screech, glass breaks and people scream.

_The orchestra of battle._

Then time stops, his heart slows down as he locked his eyes of a ghost of his past. A best friend... A brother in arms.

Steven Rogers. Captain America. The hero he believed in and carried him back from the trenches.

_My friend?_

Steve stood in the middle of No Man's Land, his dark blue uniform tattered with blood and bullet holes. He looked at the soldier with sincere blue eyes as his brow furrowed with dire confusion. Before he moved another step, the sounds of bullets deflecting off his shield make him drift back into reality. "I can't be," he muttered under his breath, as his body blocks the Winter Soldier, the silver star on his chest is an emblem that matched the red star on his new enemy's arm. "I watched you die."

With the formidable ease of a trained assassin, the Winter Soldier struck, his knuckles created tinting noise as he rammed his strength into the center of the shield. "You are mistaken." he growled under the fabric of his half-face mask, his eyes become blue flames of savage contempt. "I am no one."

Another punch, his knuckles dug into Steve's jaw. "I will kill you." he seethed, words and emotions uncontrolled and programmed. "You will die for your country, like a good soldier. He stared darkly at the bruise underneath Steve's right eye, a mark of his rage.

"You were a good soldier." Steve spoke with ragged defiance. "A good friend."

The Winter Soldier kicked him with a forceful roundhouse kick until Steve crashed on the steps, he wanted to see blood. He wanted to see the legend of American soil finally taste defeat of battle. "I have no friends." He lowered himself down on Steve's chest, his fist shaky and ready to deliver a fatal blow. "If you want to live than fight."

"Bucky," Steve coughed out, looking intently into molten blue eyes. "James Barnes."

"Bucky..." he muttered with a faint breath, his eyes tore away from Captain America. " He's dead."

He punches Steve in the face again. He watched the blonde hair hero's back jerk against the stone as he added with a hard voice. "... In a grave."

Steve looked up at him with somber eyes, gazing at the darkness churn in the soul of his best friend. He pushed the Winter Soldier off his body, a towered over the unarmed soldier with a steady glint in his eyes. "That's not true." he said with a direct tone in his voice. A commander.

"He's dead." The Winter Soldier growled, his jaw clenching under the mask, but Captain America threw him into the wall. His body crashed into the brick and landed on the floor in front of biography of another American hero. He glared up at the name, eyes clouded with the falsehood of understanding, and mind trying to grasp the truth as it stared at him right in the face. He lifted his steel limb out, trying to touch the glass barrier of a familiar existence.

"Read the name," Steve ordered, boots crunching on the glass. "Read it well."

The Winter Soldier, swiped the blood off his jaw, he removed his mask and revealed the same mouth and jaw seen in the black and white photograph. " James Buchanan Barnes." he muttered, feeling a twinge in his throbbing chest, his hand lifted up to touch the face of a phantom who was lost in snow and ice.

He turned and looked at Captain American with a hint of softness in his eyes... A hint of humanity.

_You're my friend. My captain... No more.  
_

He narrowed his eyes down, clenching a fist and then he lunged at Steve, his fist stilled inches from the super soldier's face, he paused in assault as memories of their friendship skim through his mind. He wanted freedom for his humanity, to rest in peace in a graveyard with all his fallen friends and be remembered as the name engraved on the marble. He was a hero of war, a patriotic figure of peace, who used to carry the flag into battle and protect his brothers in arms.

Now, he was a weapon... A gunner on ground level. There will be no medals of honor.

"James Barnes died a hero," Steve said softly, holding his ground. " I don't what they've done to you, but I still see the same soldier from the Bronx beyond armor."

"Then remember him as the man he was, Steve." The Winter Soldier replied, hearing the echoes of order in his ears. He had to obey them. To carry on his mission, like a good soldier.

He moved to the glass case and read his biography, until every word and though became flickers of humanity burning in his mind. "Remember me as the soldier who almost killed you, Captain America." He turned and looked over his shoulder, pulling the mask over his mouth, as he finally embrace the rebirth of a life following orders. He stared at Steve, saying another farewell to a good friend, who charismatic and brave James Barnes would have gladly taken any bullet for in the front lines.

The silver blue eyes of the American soldier's ghost faded in remorse and guilt. "Today you have the victory,' he said quietly in a voice of a dead man that he finally holds deep within him. "Today you gave me one moment to live from the winter storm, Steven Rogers."

Captain American nodded, and watched his friend disappear in the storms as the sound of high heels click on the cement. He turned and looked his eyes with the dazzling blue eyes of Black Widow, her pale face covered in scrapes, but her red copper hair still flowing like fire.

He finally releases a breath of relief, and then he met her halfway both in the light and darkness.

A small smile played on his lips, as he made a vow to free James and give him back a life of a war hero.

In the shadows, the ghost of winter stared at his powerful friend as he muttered out his name, "Bucky Barnes..."

He closed his eyes and remembered all the faces of the fallen soldiers and friends.

"Rest in peace."


End file.
